Probable Causes Of Sapphism

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Probable Causes Of Sapphism

The homosexuality of prostitutes must arise from i some radical cause, or causes; and it is quite probable those enumerated by Lombroso are in the main correct: (a) excessive, and often unnatural venery; fb) confinement in prison, with separation from men; (c) close association, in brothels, with individuals of the same sex; (d) maturity and old age inverting the secondary sexual characters; and (e) disgust for man on account of his repulsive grossness and brutality, produced by the prostitutes' profession, and combined with a longing for genuine love.1 The last element, more powerful with women than ordinarily supposed, I have already hinted at.

Mantegazza finds the chief cause in a pathologically unsatisfiable hyper-sesthcsia sexualis;' and I think that to this, along with Lombroso's list, might very properly be added the somewhat anomalous sexual position of the modern woman, which, through the facts recently mentioned, is so peculiarly favorable to the development of a neurotic habit.